Observations were made during a watching brief at the Abbey Fields sports pitches south of Circular Road North, Colchester. An area 34m x 4m was stripped prior to the construction of a seating stand adjacent to the football pitch. No archaeological features were observed during the stripping although faced blocks of greensand or sandstone were recovered from the subsoil. This building material is likely to have derived from the Roman circus the site of which is 10m to the north of the stripped area. The only identified feature was a modern power cable associated with the floodlights surrounding the pitch. When the soil-stripping was complete, a test-pit was dug at the northern end of the stripped area to establish the depth of the natural. Subsoil (L2) continued for a depth of 250mm to natural sand and gravel. <1>